The Fool's Run

“When I thought it was federal people, I couldn’t figure out what to do about Dace. I mean, federal people are like cops. But these guys are just hoods.
    “We can get back at them for Dace,” she said. She reached out and gripped my wrist so hard that the nails bit through my skin. “I want them dead. Like Dace.”

Chapter 17
    D REXEL THE GUN salesman wasn’t surprised to see us back. He seemed pleased.
    “Trading up? Or adding to?” he asked as he opened the door.
    “Adding to,” I said. “I need an M16.”
    “What range will you be shooting at?” We followed him through the living room and down the basement stairs. There was no sign of his wife or daughter.
    “I don’t know. It could be fairly long.”
    “Ah, you are in luck,” he said happily. He opened the gun cabinet. “I’ve just been out to our farm. I happen to have on hand a scope-sighted weapon. An M16/A2, to be precise. I sighted it only three days ago. The mount is quite sturdy.”
    He stroked the weapon a few times, gazing at it fondly as if it were a female friend, and handed it to me. It was dead black, and long, and cold, and heavy. “Much like the one you probably used in the service,” he said.
    “Yeah.” I looked through the scope at a dart board at the end of the basement. I could see the dart holes.
    “There are some differences,” he said, “though you don’t need to worry about them. The main thing is that you’ll be shooting a heavier slug, the sixty-eight-grain Hornady hollow-point. They’ll give you excellent accuracy. It’s dead-on at a hundred and fifty yards. The weapon does have a tendency to ride up on full auto. If you’re shooting that way, at a significantly closer range, you could drop down to a pelvic hold and allow it to ride up. That should cover all the bases.”
    Or all the people I intended to kill.
    I bought three banana clips and four cartons of shells. He threw in a long cardboard box that said “curtain rods” on the side.
    “Minimal camouflage, should you be stopped for something,” he said, sliding the weapon into the box. “Be careful not to jar that scope. It would be best to brace the box in the trunk so it won’t rattle around. If you have a little leisure time before you deploy, you might find a quiet place and check it. Just in case.”
    “Better safe than sorry,” said LuEllen.
    “A stitch in time saves nine,” Drexel shot back.
    I gave him another twenty-five hundred for everything. As we were going out the door he asked if we’d had a chance to shoot the other weapons.
    “No, we haven’t,” LuEllen said.
    “I’d like to hear how they perform, if you have a chance,” he said pleasantly. “I do have a fifty-percent buy-back policy for all weapons in new or near-new condition, after you are finished with them. Lesser amounts if there is damage.”
    “Thanks. We’ll keep it in mind,” I said.
    “That guy is a lizard,” LuEllen said as we drove away. “He’s like a cross between Beaver Cleaver’s dad and Alfred Krupp.”
    I nearly drove the car over a curb.
    “Alfred Krupp?”
    “I read books,” she said defensively. “You act like I’m a fuckin’ dummy.”
     
    DACE HAD TAKEN LuEllen to his cabin in West Virginia only once, and it was before Maggie showed up. LuEllen didn’t remember mentioning it to her.
    The cabin, LuEllen said, sat over a pool on a small stream that allegedly harbored a trout or two, though Dace admitted he’d never seen one. The nearest cabin was half a mile downstream. There was nothing at all above him.
    “He liked it because it was remote,” LuEllen said. “The land is no good for farming, the timber is all bad second growth. The only thing up there are a few cabins along the stream. Dace said you can’t even get in or out if it snows. He came up here once in the winter and almost froze his ass off before he could get out.”
    The road, she said, wasn’t on any map. I wasn’t so sure. We stopped at the county courthouse and bought a large-scale county map.
    “You were right,” said LuEllen, after we unrolled it on the hood of the car. “This is it.” She traced a narrow track along Greyling Creek. It ran through the lower reaches of the mountains between two all-weather gravel roads.
    “It’s a good thing to know. Dillon will find this thing. If I give Maggie directions, the shooters will come in the other way. Count on it.”
    The road to Dace’s cabin ran parallel to the creek, which lay off to the right. To